Caroline Aherne, comedian, actress and creator of The Royle Family, dies after 'brave' battle with cancer News Caroline Aherne, comedian, actress and creator of The Royle Family, dies after 'brave' battle with cancer Caroline Aherne (c) with fellow Royle Family stars Liz Smith (l) and Sue Johnston (r) in 2001 Credit: Brian Smith 2 July 2016 • 6:16pm Star dies aged 52, after suffering from retinal, bladder, lung and throat cancer Best known as the creator of Mrs Merton, and as the writer and star of The Royle Family Read the Telegraph's full obituary Caroline Aherne, who created, wrote and starred in the Royle Family, has died of cancer at the age of 52, prompting a flood of moving tributes yesterday to her ‘comic genius’. Aherne had spent much of her life battling cancer and other demons, including depression and alcoholism. But she was responsible for some of the funniest and most endearing characters created on television included the mock chat show host Mrs Merton.

Aherne had said her humour had helped her in coping with her long and frequent fights with cancer. Sue Johnston, who played Aherne’s on-screen mother in The Royle Family, said simply: “I am devastated at her passing and I am numb with grief”. Terribly sad to hear the news that Caroline Aherne has died of cancer. Thanks for nearly 30 years of laughs Caroline pic.twitter.com/tBPNbd84Gp — Cancer Research UK (@CR_UK) 2 July 2016 Ralf Little, who played her brother Antony on the sitcom, added: “Thing is, amidst all sadness Caroline would now say something grounded, incisive, and hilarious. I can’t think of anything, but she would.” Aherne, who had fought long battles with cancer, depression and alcoholism, first rose to prominence through the brilliant comic creation Mrs Merton, in which she appeared in make-up as a blue-rinse grandmother hosting a mock chat show. Caroline Aherne moved television comedy on to a new place. Her extraordinary work will be cherished by future generations.

— Matt Lucas (@RealMattLucas) 2 July 2016 It was on The Mrs Merton Show that she asked with straight face of Debbie McGee, the much younger wife of the magician Paul Daniels: “So, what first attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?” The line is one of the funniest - and best remembered - in television history and has been canibalised and reused countless times since. McGee tweeted in tribute: “Just heard the very sad news about Caroline Aherne she was wonderful especially as Mrs Merton. My interview will be a treasured memory.” Just heard the very sad news about Caroline Ahearne she was wonderful especially as Mrs Merton. My interview will be a treasured memory RIP — Debbie McGee (@thedebbiemcgee) 2 July 2016 Aherne's death was announced yesterday afternoon by her publicist Neil Reading, who said in a statement: “Caroline Aherne has sadly passed away, after a brave battle with cancer". The BAFTA award-winning writer and comedy actor died at her home in Timperley, Greater Manchester. She was 52.

The family ask for privacy at this very sad time.” Before the Mrs Merton Show, Aherne had written and performed on the BBC’s hit comedy sketch show The Fast Show alongside Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Higson, which ran from 1994 to 1997. Another of her co-stars John Thomson tweeted yesterday: “I’ve lost a very good friend, we went back years. An irreplaceable comic genius. A joy to be and work with. The Renee to my Roy. RIP Caroline.” Thomson played Roy, a hen-pecked husband, to Aherne’s domineering wife Renee in the show. Caroline Aherne, Ricky Tomlinson, Craig Cash, Ralf Little and Sue Johnston in The Royle Family Credit: ITV-REX-Shutterstock But Aherne will be best remembered and loved for The Royle Family, which she created with Craig Cash, and which took as its subject a working class family in Manchester. Almost the entire action was spent in the living room watching the characters watching television. The unlikely subject matter was a huge critical and commercial success.

Running for three series on the BBC from 1998 to 2000, as well as later Christmas specials, it revolved around the family of Jim and Barbara Royle, played by Ricky Tomlinson and Sue Johnston, and their children Denise and Antony, played by Aherne and Little. Aherne’s character was memorably lazy, her hapless and less than bright boyfriend played by her co-writer Cash, forced to do all the running around at her behest. The Royle Family won a series of Baftas and made Aherne one of the most loved and respected stars on television. It was also the toast of the 1999 British Comedy Awards, winning four trophies including best actress for Aherne. But with her fame and genius came demons. Caroline Aherne and John Thomson in The Fast Show Credit: ITV-REX-Shutterstock She had struggled with health problems for a number of years and in July 1998 was admitted to hospital after overdosing on sleeping pills at her home in Notting Hill, west London. She described the suicide attempt as her “lowest ebb” but afterwards threw herself into turning the Royle Family into a huge success.

Aherne was also treated over the years for alcohol dependency and depression at The Priory clinic in London. Aherne was at the peak of her fame when she suddenly quit the UK in 2001 to live as a virtual recluse in Australia for five years. She returned to Britain in 2006, selling her London home and moving to south Manchester, living around the corner from her mother and brother. She had also battled over the course of her lifetime with cancer. “My brother and I were born with cancer of the eyes, the retina, my mum told us only special people get cancer. I must be very special because I have had it in my lungs and bladder as well,” she said in 2014 at a press conference for the Macmillan cancer charity. Watch | Caroline Aherne's best moments 01:18 At the same press conference she had told how her humour had helped her fight the disease in hospital. “The other thing that gets you through, I’ve found - so many funny things happen when you’re in there and, looking back, you do have a right laugh with the nurses. “Although I was on morphine, so maybe it was just me laughing.

“But that’s a way I think you can cope with it. If you can separate yourself from it, a sense of humour really, really helps.” As a child, she was sent to Lourdes in search of a miracle cure for the retina cancer but was left with severely impaired sight in one eye. It was announced in April this year that Aherne, who by then was suffering from throat cancer, would front a Government campaign to encourage the public to cut down on drinking and smoking. In 2013, she began narrating another unlikely hit series Gogglebox - which this time involved watching real people watching television - but fans grew alarmed when she missed recent episodes due to illness. Caroline Aherne obituary | Television & radio | The Guardian Caroline Aherne obituary Award-winning writer and actor best known for The Mrs Merton Show and The Royle Family Caroline Aherne was one of TV’s most gifted comic voices.

Photograph: Nils Jorgensen/Rex/Shutterstock Saturday 2 July 2016 14.14 EDT Last modified on Monday 11 July 2016 11.33 EDT Share on Messenger Close Caroline Aherne , who has died aged 52 of cancer, was responsible for some of the most distinctive and memorable comedy creations of the 1990s. From Mrs Merton to The Royle Family, her characters were waspish but warmly observed, and gave audiences an all-too-rare taste of comedy that reflected their relationship with television and love-hate feelings about celebrity. She was one of the few members of the British comedy pantheon not to be male, metropolitan and privileged, and her work often drew on her background. Aherne made her name with The Mrs Merton Show, a chatshow featuring the eponymous horn-rimmed, chintzy-sleeved northern housewife who fired faux-naive questions at her hapless celebrity guests: “What first attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?” she once asked his wife, Debbie McGee. Pinterest The Mrs Merton Show, with Kriss Akabusi, Debbie McGee and Caroline Aherne.

Photograph: ITV/Rex/Shutterstock The Royle Family, the sitcom she co-wrote with Craig Cash, was groundbreaking in its portrayal of a working-class Manchester family watching TV in their front room. It was a sitcom that drew on the British tradition of 1950s kitchen sink dramas and the films of Mike Leigh, but it was more compassionate than either. The writer Jimmy McGovern said of it: “There is great love in that family, but it is never stated. That’s so true to life.” Comedian and actor Caroline Aherne dies aged 52 Though the sitcom cannot be said to have ushered in a new era of comedy drawing on working-class experience – British TV comedy remains, with a few exceptions, as dominated by ex-public schoolboys as it ever was – it did pave the way for at least two subsequent TV series. Paul Abbott, creator of Shameless, the Channel 4 comedy drama set in a low-income northern milieu, said he owed his show’s success to The Royle Family. More recently, Gogglebox, Channel 4’s documentary series observing viewers watching television – narrated by Aherne – owed an obvious debt to its sitcom precursor.

Caroline Aherne's life and career – in pictures Read more There was more to her comic armoury than Mrs Merton and Denise Royle, though they were her best-known characters. In the 1990s sketch programme The Fast Show, Aherne played the Mediterranean weather girl Paola Fisch (catchphrase “scorchio!”), and a cheeky checkout girl who insulted customers. The comedy series Dossa and Joe, which she wrote and directed in the early 2000s while in self-imposed exile in Australia, focused on a couple who had been happily married for 40 years yet found their marriage floundering after retirement. The show was a critical success but a ratings flop. Aherne was born in London to Irish immigrants, Bert, a labourer on the railways, and Maureen, a school dinner lady. When she was two, the family moved to Wythenshawe, Manchester. The Royle Family may well have been inspired by the Aherne family, with her father serving as unwitting prototype for sharp-tongued, moaning Jim Royle. She recalled later: “My dad was always going on about the immersion, and about lights being left on.

‘It’s like feckin’ Blackpool illuminations,’ he used to say.” Both she and her older brother Patrick were born with a rare cancer of the retina, retinoblastoma, that caused Patrick to lose an eye, and left Caroline almost unsighted in one eye. She became the family joker, impersonating TV characters like Margot and Barbara from The Good Life and celebrities such as Marti Caine and Cilla Black. “Nobody else in the family was like that,” Patrick said. “But she was funny from the time she was really little.” As a teenager, Caroline watched Mike Leigh’s television play Abigail’s Party (1977) and resolved she would become a writer like him. Caroline Aherne: reclusive comic superstar with a big heart | Observer profile Read more Precociously intelligent, she scored 176 in an IQ test and received nine As in her O-levels at the Hollies Convent grammar school. She studied drama at Liverpool Polytechnic, and in the late 1980s took a job at BBC Manchester as secretary to Janet Street-Porter.

During this time she began to develop an act on the Manchester comedy circuit, with characters including Mitzi Goldberg, lead singer of the comedy country and western act the Mitzi Goldberg Experience, and a nun called Sister Mary Immaculate, whose ambition was to kiss the pope’s ring. Mrs Merton was developed in collaboration with Henry Normal, then a performance poet in Manchester, Craig Cash, with whom she presented a show on the Manchester radio station KFM, and the comedian Dave Gorman. But it was the late Chris Sievey , the man behind the outsize-masked comic character Frank Sidebottom, who ensured that their creation made it to the big time. Sievey asked Aherne, a friend of his brother-in-law, to voice the part of Frank’s neighbour Mrs Merton on his album 5:9:88 (1988), and later on his Piccadilly Radio show in Manchester. The following year, Sievey invited her to reprise the character in Frank Sidebottom’s Fantastic Shed Show (1992) on ITV. She was supposed to be Sidebottom’s sidekick, but Mrs Merton overshadowed him and was so well received that Granada TV commissioned her to make her own comedy vehicle.

The result was The Mrs Merton Show, which ran from 1995 to 1998 on the BBC. It had an audience composed of real-life pensioners and an in-house band, Hooky and the Boys, led by her first husband, Joy Division and New Order bassist Peter Hook, whom she married in 1994. The couple divorced in 1997. The Royle Family ran for three seasons from 1998 to 2000, followed by specials until 2012. Mrs Merton and Malcolm, with Cash as a 37-year-old son still living at home, had a single series in 1999. Pinterest Craig Cash and Caroline Aherne in The Royle Family. Photograph: ITV/Rex/Shutterstock For all that she was feted by critics and garlanded with awards, Aherne struggled with fame and with her health. In 1998, at her mews home in Notting Hill, west London, she tried to take her own life.

She was treated for depression and alcoholism at the Priory clinic in 1998, and was also treated there in 2002. In addition, she suffered bladder cancer related to her eye condition. In 2014, as part of a charity drive to raise money to treat other patients suffering from the disease, she announced she was suffering from lung cancer. In 2001, she announced she was quitting showbusiness, because she no longer wanted to be famous. She moved for a while to Australia, returning in 2002 to collaborate with Cash one last time, on Early Doors, a fondly observed sitcom about the regulars of a Manchester pub, but she quit, leaving Cash to write and star in the hit show that some critics misguidedly called the British Cheers. In later years, Aherne never equalled her earlier successes, still less the celebrity that came from writing and performing in two hit TV shows. She eschewed the media spotlight and lived quietly at a house in Manchester not far from her mother’s home.

She wrote such dramas as The Fattest Man in Britain (2009) and The Security Men (2013), as well as taking minor roles, such as a barmaid in a comedy called Sunshine (2008) with Steve Coogan. She also narrated programmes including Pound Shop Wars (2014), a BBC1 documentary, and voiced some of the characters in CBBC’s animated series Strange Hill High (2013-14). Perhaps fittingly, one of her last TV roles was to narrate Gogglebox, the weekly Channel 4 documentary series in which TV viewers watch other TV viewers watching TV. She is survived by her mother and brother.

Caroline Mary Aherne, comedy actor and writer, born 24 December 1963; died 2 July 2016 Caroline Aherne, comedian – obituary Caroline Aherne, comedian – obituary Caroline Aherne on The Mrs Merton Show Credit: ITV/Rex 2 July 2016 • 4:30pm Caroline Aherne, who has died aged 52 , shot to television stardom in the mid-1990s playing Mrs Merton, a bespectacled chat-show host more than twice her age, before becoming an alcoholic, creating a sitcom about dysfunctional television-fixated slobs in The Royle Family, and finally abandoning her career because, as she put it, she was “sick of being famous”.

As the purse-lipped, iron-permed, Crimplene-clad Mancunian pensioner in the first series of The Mrs Merton Show in 1995, Aherne became a household name with her faux naive question to Debbie McGee: “So tell me, what first attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?” Caroline Aherne had recently married a millionaire of her own, Peter Hook, the bass guitarist in the group New Order, and for a time appeared under the name Caroline Hook. With her arch manner and gimlet stare (the result of partial blindess in one eye), she became the... Premium Obituary: Caroline Aherne - BBC News BBC News Image copyright PA Caroline Aherne's writing exposed the comedy in the more mundane events of family life. The dysfunctional Royle family, from the comedy series of the same name she created, drew heavily on her own childhood and the people she met while she was growing up. Starting her career in stand-up, she quickly developed as both a writer and performer. All this was while she battled recurring ill health, depression and alcoholism.

Caroline Mary Aherne was born in Ealing, west London, on 24 December 1963, the daughter of Irish immigrants. By the time she was three, her father Bert, a railway labourer, had moved the family to live in the Wythenshawe district of Manchester. Her father was an alcoholic and her family struggled to make ends meet. Image caption Dancer Wayne Sleep with Mrs Merton Aherne battled ill health from an early age. Both she and her older brother, Patrick, were born with a rare cancer of the retina. When she was four, the local Catholic church raised money to send the two children to Lourdes. However, her mother Maureen decided to put her faith in St Bartholomew's Hospital in London and took Aherne and her brother there for regular treatment. Despite the best efforts of doctors, she spent the rest of her life with partial sight in one eye. She swiftly developed the role of the family joker and gained an ability to accurately mimic characters on television. Performance bug "Nobody else in the family was like that," her brother recalled.

"But she was funny from the time she was really little." By the time she was 15 she had taken the decision to become a writer, after seeing the Mike Leigh play Abigail's Party on BBC TV. She was extremely bright, achieving nine Grade A O-Levels at a local convent school before going on to study drama at Liverpool Polytechnic. Image caption Aherne created the dysfunctional Royle family One of her first jobs was with the BBC in Manchester, as secretary to Janet Street Porter, but the performance bug was already ingrained in her. She became a regular on the Manchester comedy circuit in the character of Mitzi Goldberg, a spoof country and western singer. The nun Sister Mary Immaculate was another early creation. Aherne's career was boosted when she met Craig Cash, with whom she worked on Manchester's KFM indie radio station. He encouraged her to further develop the character of an agony aunt called Mrs Merton and sent tapes to the presenter Martin Kelner, who played them on his Radio 2 show. Quizzed The Mrs Merton Show launched on BBC TV in 1995 and ran for five seasons.

A series of guest stars were subjected to gentle but often extremely embarrassing questions in front of a live audience of pensioners. "And what first attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?" was one of the gems aimed at guest Debbie McGee. Image caption As Paula Fisch in The Fast Show Carol Thatcher was asked if she had been breast-fed, while George Best was quizzed as to whether it was playing all that football that made him so thirsty. Aherne was also appearing regularly on The Fast Show, notably as Paula Fisch, the Chanel 9 weather girl whose forecasts were always "scorchio". But by the third series of Mrs Merton, Aherne was feeling the pressure of the continual live performances, and her personal life was beginning to unravel. Her marriage to New Order bassist Peter Hook collapsed and a Mrs Merton series filmed in Las Vegas was not a success. Retreat Her dependency on alcohol increased and she began suffering long periods of depression. It culminated in a well-publicised suicide attempt in 1998 and Aherne took herself off for rehab. "I actually have no recollection of it," she said later.

"But I'd been down for a while, and my mind was whizzing at night, so I was drinking to sleep." Image caption Mrs Merton & Malcolm was not a great success Her retreat from alcohol coincided with the first series of The Royle Family, which first appeared on BBC TV in September 1998. The series, in which Aherne played Denise Royle, was an immediate hit, although not before Aherne had to fight off attempts by BBC executives to change her original ideas. She fiercely resisted the pressure to shoot scenes on location and held out for the final format, which barely moved from the Royle sofa in the living room. Aherne also fought off moves to bring in a studio audience, which she said would completely ruin the show. Complaints She incorporated elements of her own father in the character of the feckless Jim Royle, played by Ricky Tomlinson. "My dad was always going on about the immersion, and about lights being left on." The Royle Family eventually ran for 25 episodes, attracting audiences of up to 10 million.

However, another series, Mrs Merton and Malcolm, based on a British Gas advert, was less successful, with complaints that the character of Malcolm poked fun at people with learning difficulties. Image copyright PA Image caption An astute observer of life By now Aherne had begun drinking again but insisted she was able to control her craving for alcohol. Aherne fell out with Cash and moved to Sydney in Australia. It became the setting for her BBC Two sitcom Dossa and Joe, which aired in 2002 to mixed reviews. She dropped out of the public gaze, re-emerging briefly for Royle Family specials in 2006 and 2010. More recently she was the voice of hit Channel 4 show Gogglebox, which she had narrated since it began in 2013. Aherne continued to battle ill health. She suffered a bout of bladder cancer and, in 2014, revealed she had undergone treatment for lung cancer. Behind her sometimes dopey characters was an astute observer of life, succinctly summed up by her Royle Family co-star Ricky Tomlinson.

"Caroline acts like a dope and a dumb blonde," he once said, "but she's as sharp as a box of razor blades." BFI Screenonline: Aherne, Caroline (1963-) Biography and Marti Caine ) won her a prize at Butlins. After studying Drama at Liverpool Polytechnic she worked as a BBC secretary with aspirations of becoming a writer and programme researcher. Aherne began working with her long-time collaborator Craig Cash on the Stockport radio station KFM, creating numerous characters including country and western singer Mitzi Goldberg and Sister Mary Immaculate. Another popular character was agony aunt Mrs Merton, who, with the aid of writers Cash, Dave Gorman and Henry Normal , took on a life of her own, making her television debut as the next door neighbour in Frank Sidebottom's Fantastic Shed Show (ITV, 1992). The Mrs Merton Show (BBC, 1995-98) was an unqualified success.

Surrounded by an audience of real-life pensioners and supported by her in-house band Hooky and the Boys (Aherne was then married to Peter Hook of New Order , and even credited as 'Caroline Hook' for a time), Mrs Merton's interviewing style ("warm with a gentle kicking") enabled her to ask cheekier questions to her guests than more conventional hosts might have dared - including, famously, asking Debbie McGee ; "So, what first attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?" The character's popularity produced adverts for British Gas, a spin-off sit-com Mrs Merton and Malcolm (BBC, 1999), and a BAFTA in 1995. Whilst playing Mrs Merton, Aherne contributed a handful of characters to the award winning sketch series The Fast Show (BBC, 1994-2000), including Spanish TV weathergirl Paola Fisch ("Scorchio!"), Rochdale schoolgirl Janine Carr and the sharp-tongued supermarket checkout girl forever commenting on the shoppers' items ("Ribbed condoms? Very thoughtful.").

With Cash and Normal, Aherne created the BAFTA-winning The Royle Family , in which the lives of a Manchester family revolved around the television. The action rarely ventured away from the living room as the family drank tea and held sofa based discussions. Aherne played the bone idle daughter Denise and also directed the third series. Her writing partnership with Cash came to an abrupt end when she walked out of work on Early Doors (eventually broadcast by the BBC in 2003) over problems with the script. Suffering from depression and constant press intrusion into her private life, she left Britain for Sydney. Coaxed by BBC2 controller Jane Root into creating a new comedy series, Aherne wrote and directed the Australia-set Dossa and Joe (BBC, 2002), about the breakdown of a long-term marriage post retirement. The series was a critical success but a ratings failure.

Graham Rinaldi Caroline Aherne: Royle Family writer and actress dies aged 52 - BBC News BBC News Caroline Aherne: Royle Family writer and actress dies aged 52 2 July 2016 Image copyright PA Comedy writer and actress Caroline Aherne has died at the age of 52. Aherne, star and writer of The Royle Family and The Mrs Merton Show, had suffered from cancer, her publicist said. The actress said two years ago that she had been diagnosed with lung cancer, having previously had bladder and eye cancer. Aherne was also the narrator of Gogglebox and appeared in The Fast Show. Her publicist Neil Reading said on Saturday: "Caroline Aherne has sadly passed away, after a brave battle with cancer. "The Bafta award-winning writer and comedy actor died earlier today at her home in Timperley, Greater Manchester. She was 52.

"The family ask for privacy at this very sad time." Celebrities pay tribute to comedian 'True comedy genius' Aherne had spoken of her diagnosis with cancer while addressing an appeal to approve cancer care in Manchester in 2014, saying: "I've had cancer and my brother's had cancer and we know how it affects people." She said she and her brother had been born with cancer of the retina, adding: "My mum told us that only special people get cancer. I must be very special because I've had it in my lungs and my bladder as well." Aherne's co-stars and fellow comics have been paying tribute to her. Sue Johnston, who played Barbara - the mother of Aherne's character Denise - in The Royle Family, said: "I am devastated at her passing and I am numb with grief." Ralf Little, Denise's brother Antony in the show, said Aherne was "a sister, real and (for me) fake", as well as a genius and a friend with a "big, big heart". The Fast Show co-star Arabella Weir told the BBC Aherne was "an absolute genius" and that "everything she said was funny".

Media captionCaroline Aherne: How spoof radio agony aunt became TV star She said: "She was one of those people who was - without being attention seeking - always, always funny, even when you weren't filming. "Everything she said was just killingly funny. She was just a great and she was a gentle, kind, easygoing person. She was great to work with. She never made a fuss. She was just a real laugh to be around." Broadcaster Terry Christian, who had also worked alongside Aherne, said: "What it was with Caroline was she was genuinely one of the funniest people just in the pub. "A lot of comedians aren't. You know they go away, write it all down and you know in real life there's nothing. "Whereas with Caroline, she was so naturally sharp and witty and that's why everything she did had that risk factor in. You know if you look at the Mrs Merton Show, none of it was set up.

Not a single question with the audience was set up." Analysis By David Sillito, BBC media and arts correspondent "Did you ever think if you hadn't done all that running around playing football, would you have been as thirsty?" "Did you ever think when you were a little kid....you would be famous in every pub in Britain?" George Best gave a little smile and looked round to the audience. If anyone else had asked it, they would have been on his side - but the laughter said it all. Poor George just had to sit there and accept that, Mrs Merton, this young woman in a wig and glasses, could ask the questions no one else could dare. And they loved her for it. The same lines from someone else could easily have just sounded cruel. Equally on The Royle Family, flatulent Jim, camped permanently on the sofa, and feckless selfish Denise seem to be, on paper, hard characters to warm to. But there was always something affectionate in this comedy. Caroline Aherne had many troubles but perhaps they also helped her convey something that's often missing in comedy - empathy. The Royle Family didn't seem patronising or mocking because it so clearly grew out of her own life and experiences.

She was one of us - just funnier. Actor and writer Mark Gatiss said Aherne was "so gifted", and Little Britain star David Walliams wrote on Twitter : "Absolutely devastating news about Caroline Aherne. A true comedy genius, her work was equally funny & touching." Jenny Eclair wrote : "Poor dear Caroline Aherne, how terribly sad." Comedian Sarah Millican said: "So sad. What a wonderful talent she was." David Baddiel paid tribute by writing : "The talent, you all knew about. But she was a really lovely woman. Vulnerable and complex and damaged but... lovely. #CarolineAherneRIP." Some also recalled their favourite lines, with DJ and writer Danny Baker writing on Twitter : "Goodbye great Caroline Aherne. A gift & language that lives on. A vegetarian? That's a shame. Could she have some wafer-thin ham, Barbara?" Image caption Aherne starred alongside a cast including Ralf Little, Ricky Tomlinson and Sue Johnston in The Royle Family Aherne was born in London but grew up in Wythenshawe, Manchester.

Her brother Patrick has said she was the family joker, adding: "Nobody else in the family was like that. But she was funny from the time she was really little." She studied drama at Liverpool Polytechnic then started work as a secretary at the BBC before finding national fame in the mid-1990s with Mrs Merton, in which she starred as the eponymous chat show host, and The Fast Show. Image copyright PA Image caption Aherne, seated second right, with fellow Fast Show cast members The Royle Family, which ran for three series and featured in several specials, told the story of a dysfunctional family. Aherne wrote it with co-star Craig Cash, drawing on her own childhood experiences and the people she met growing up. It won four awards, including best actress for Aherne, at the 1999 British Comedy Awards, before going on to pick up the best sitcom Bafta in 2000 and 2007. In the Mrs Merton Show, a series of guests were subjected to questions in front of an audience of pensioners.

One much-quoted example is when Mrs Merton asked Debbie McGee: "And what first attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?". The Mrs Merton Christmas Show won the best talk show Bafta in 1997. Aherne was nominated for Baftas for her performances in both shows, as well as for directing The Royle Family in 2001. 'Much loved by audiences' BBC director general Tony Hall said: "We are deeply saddened to learn of Caroline's death. "She was a brilliant, award-winning comedy writer and performer, much loved by audiences - especially for The Royle Family and Mrs Merton and for her wonderful voicing of many shows. "Our thoughts are with her family and friends." Gogglebox tweeted that everyone involved with the programme was "devastated about the passing of our dearest Caroline, who we all adored". Former ITV chairman Lord Grade said: "We have lost a most original talent.

The Royle Family will live in the mind with the greatest situation comedies." Caroline Aherne dead: Tributes and reaction as Royle Family star dies aged 52 - Mirror Online TV Caroline Aherne dead: Tributes and reaction as Royle Family star dies aged 52 The star was best known for her work in The Royle Family, The Mrs Merton Show and The Fast Show Share Click to playTap to play The video will start in 8Cancel Play now Watch some of Caroline Aherne's best moments Share this video Get celebs updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Could not subscribe, try again laterInvalid Email Actress Caroline Aherne has died at the age of 52 after a battle with cancer. The BAFTA-winning creator of the Royle Family and Mrs Merton died earlier today at her home in Timperley, Greater Manchester. "The Bafta award-winning writer and comedy actor died earlier today at her home in Timperley, Greater Manchester. She was 52.

Caroline Aherne passed away at her home in Manchester after a battle with throat cancer (Photo: PA) Caroline Aherne made the nation cry laughing as the checkout girl on The Fast Show "The family ask for privacy at this very sad time." The Gogglebox star was forced to take time off from narrating the show earlier this year while she received treatment for the disease. Caroline was also known for her work in 'The Mrs Merton Show' and 'The Fast Show' and most recently, she narrated the Channel 4 reality TV series 'Gogglebox'. Read More Aherne brings back Mrs Merton | Media | The Guardian Aherne brings back Mrs Merton Aherne as Mrs Merton: return of spoof agony aunt will surprise many Thursday 2 October 2003 08.13 EDT First published on Thursday 2 October 2003 08.13 EDT Share on Messenger Close Caroline Aherne is returning to television to revive her spoof chat show creation, Mrs Merton, 10 years after the bespectacled pensioner made her debut clutching a cup of tea in one hand and a script of killer questions in the other.

Her decision to return to the screens comes two years after Aherne quit the UK for a new life in Australia out of the spotlight and will come as a surprise to many. She was due to star as a landlady in Early Doors, a sitcom about working-class northerners who gather at local pub The Grapes, her first collaboration with Craig Cash since the Royle Family. But she walked off the project after the pair rowed. Now Cash has revealed she is set to revive the seemingly-sweet little old lady who mercilessly pulled the legs of everyone from Michael Parkinson to Germaine Greer and Chris Eubank. The blue-rinsed elderly agony aunt character was so convincing that Aherne got away with asking her guests questions that she would have had trouble getting away with dressed as herself. Mrs Merton famously asked Paul Daniels' wife, Debbie McGee: "So, what first attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?" To Jo Brands she said: "You're married to Lenny Henry, aren't you?" and Lorraine Kelly was asked: "What preparations are you making for the menopause?

You'll have to rush because Judy Finnigan'll probably beat you to it." In a cringingly amusing exchange she told LaToya Jackson how her fictional son Malcolm was apt to "touch himself downstairs". Her show, which came complete with an audience made up of pensioners and an interlude in which Mrs Merton would ask in an innocent voice, "Let's have a heated debate", was a huge success and even spawned a series of adverts for British Gas featuring Mrs Merton and son Malcolm, played by Cash. Mrs Merton began life as one of Aherne's host of stand-up comedy creations but landed her own TV show, made by Granada. The identity of the real woman behind the housecoat remained a mystery for a while, but once the show took off Aherne became a household name and tabloid favourite, thanks in part to her drunken antics. The BBC was so keen to hang on to Mrs Merton that it agreed to allow Aherne to develop a BBC2 comedy in return for a third and fourth series. The new show became the Royle Family, a critical and ratings success that was eventually promoted to BBC1.

As Denise, the terminally lazy daughter in the sofa-bound family, Aherne cemented her place as one of the UK's wittiest observers, writers and performers. But after battling with drink and depression, often in the full glare of publicity, Aherne decided to turn her back on showbusiness in April 2001, taking time out to "recharge her batteries". While recuperating in Australia Aherne wrote the BBC sitcom Dossa and Joe but it did not fare well in the ratings and failed to make a second series. Cash said "It's been 10 years since Mrs Merton started and its about time we brought her back." · To contact the MediaGuardian newsdesk email editor@mediatheguardian.com or phone 020 7239 9857 Goodbye to Caroline Aherne from one of your many fans Goodbye to Caroline Aherne from one of your many fans Share Tweet By Barry Lord @bazneto Caroline, I know today I’m still standing at the end of a long queue of friends, family, professional colleagues and fans, all eager to share their favourite memories of you.

I have heard many of them talk about the gifts you possessed as a writer and performer, your generous nature and love for your family and they speak with an authority I don’t have because, unfortunately, I never got the chance to meet you, but the woman they have described sounds like a rare and bright spirit indeed. I can only talk about what your work has meant to me personally over the years. In the mid-90s, when your talents began to take root, I was an angry teenager, railing against a world I struggled to relate to, normally found sporting an army surplus jacket, big boots and a Rage against the Machine t-shirt. My parents worried about the ever widening teenage disconnect that was developing and looked for ways to bridge the gap. What lured me out of my room, away from my chocolate fingers and Cure CDs, into the living room was – to everyone’s surprise, including mine – a TV chat show featuring a young woman pretending to be a pensioner, albeit one with razor sharp put downs and beautiful comic timing. Caroline Aherne as the sharp tongued pensioner Mrs Merton The woman’s name was Mrs Merton, played by one Caroline Aherne.

And when Mrs Merton asked Debbie McGee what attracted her to the millionaire Paul Daniels, I, like millions of others, could count myself in her fan base. Throughout the decade, you graced television shows like the Fast Show with memorable characters, like the all too inquisitive checkout girl and Poula Fisch, the weather presenter for the fictional Channel 9 where the weather was only ever 45 degrees, or ‘scorchio’. Though a girl from Wythenshawe, Manchester, you always acknowledged your Irish stock, especially in the brilliant character of Sister Mary Immaculate, the nun with a biting line in sarcasm. It was fitting then that the decade should end with possibly your greatest achievement, as co-writer (with your co-star and chief collaborator Craig Cash) and star of the much loved Royle Family, where your portrayal of the slovenly Denise won you many more admirers and accolades. Caroline Aherne with her Royle Family Indeed your success in the 90s was all the more admirable given the comic scene at that time.

For the 90s was the perceived decade of the ‘lad’, the Loaded magazine reader with the can of lager in his hand, and much of decade’s comedy reflected this image. That you managed to stamp your authority in a decade which left little room for a female comic voice was truly an achievement. How surprising it was to learn that the woman who made these strides was riddled with insecurities – the kind of neuroses that would sadly manifest themselves in your battle with alcohol and depression. It was an even bigger testament to your willingness to make others laugh that the cancer you knowingly carried in your body since birth proved no hindrance to your dream of reaching an audience. If anything it was the fuel that made you want to go further. Caroline Aherne as Debbie in her masterpiece, The Royle Family You built an amazing body of work and now tragically, after 52 short years, your work is done. Another famous Mancunian sang about a light that never goes out. I hope wherever you are, someone is making damn sure your light never fades. Rest in peace.

Question: Which pensioner is played by Caroline Aherne?
Answer: MRS MERTON